Princess Eugenie wears £100,000 sapphire engagement ring – but it's nothing like Kate's

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank spoke to BBC The One Show’s Matt Baker at Buckingham Palace around the time when they announced their engagement in 2018. Bride-to-be Eugenie, then 28, shared why her long-term boyfriend Jack’s proposal was the “perfect moment” and showed off her new sapphire engagement ring.

After dating for seven years, Jack popped the question during a trip to Nicaragua, later picking out a beautiful sapphire engagement ring.

However, this sapphire ring looks nothing like Kate Middleton’s famous blue sapphire ring, which formerly belonged to Princess Diana, as Eugenie’s features a rare padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds.

Jack broke royal custom with this decision because he chose a rare sapphire instead of a traditional diamond, like the one the late Queen wore and royals such as Meghan Markle and Princess Beatrice currently wear.

On January 22, 2018, Buckingham Palace broke the happy news of the royal couple’s engagement and a series of romantic photographs were shared afterwards, showing off the jaw-dropping ring up close. The striking design, chosen by Jack, contains a padparadscha sapphire, a very rare jewel which gives a beautiful pinkish-orange glow.

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The main stone is surrounded by diamonds in a flower shape, which is more formally known as a cluster-shaped ring. Lorna Haddon, the head of diamonds and jewellery at Beaverbrooks, suspects that Eugenie’s ring is worth £100,000 due to its rare padparadscha sapphire.

Eugenie’s precious piece of jewellery contains the rarest of all sapphires which usually come from Sri Lanka.

The Natural Sapphire Company said about the ring: “Nothing brings to mind blooming flowers like padparadscha sapphires. Named after the colour of a lotus blossom, the pinkish orange glow of these stones are hypnotising.”

Maxwell Stone from UK jewellers Steven Stone spoke to Express.co.uk about how Eugenie’s ring glistened on her wedding day in 2018.

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Mr Stone added: “Though Princess Eugenie kept her jewellery fairly simple on her wedding day, it’s clear that a lot of thought went into each piece as they all have a family connection – from her wedding ring that was made from a piece of Welsh gold given by Queen Elizabeth II, to a pair of diamond and cabochon emerald drop earrings that were a gift from her new husband.

“The Princess surprised us all by not wearing her mother’s tiara – instead opting to borrow the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara from her grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“Featuring a 93.7-carat cabochon-cut emerald, it’s the most valuable royal tiara and worth a staggering £1million.”

The Princess described her proposal during a television interview, sharing: “The lake was so beautiful, it was a special light and I even said: ‘This is an incredible moment’ and then he popped the question, which was really surprising even though we had been together seven years.

“It was the perfect moment because we knew it was going to end up this way.” She added: “I was over the moon, crying.”

Eugenie and Jack tied the knot in an autumnal ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on October 12, 2018.

The royal bride wore a wedding dress designed by British fashion designers, Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos of Peter Pilotto, which was designed to proudly display the scoliosis scar on her back.

Eugenie borrowed the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara from her grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s jewellery collection.

source: express.co.uk